Garden Planner, Feb. 15

Feb. 14, 2014

Written by

Stephanie Bruner

This week

• If you want to put out birdhouses this year, start getting them ready now. You’ll want them in place by mid- to late March, when the nesting season starts. Do a little research to make sure you’re building or buying the right type of birdhouse for the kind of birds you want to attract.

• A warm day may tempt you to do some garden cleanup. It’s fine to cut back the tops of plants, but don’t rake away mulch or leaf cover over the crowns yet—we could still have very cold weather that could damage new growth.

• Spruce up houseplants by wiping the tops and bottoms of leaves with a damp cloth, or set plants in the shower and run cool water over them. Let the plant drain in the bathtub before you set it back in its saucer. For plants with fuzzy leaves, like African violets, remove dust and cobwebs with a soft brush (like a baby hairbrush) instead of wetting the leaves.

This month

• Plan a cutting garden to keep yourself supplied with bouquets all summer. Although perennials make nice cut flowers, many annuals will continue to bloom from early summer to frost as long as you keep cutting the flowers off. Medium to tall annuals that make great cut flowers are cosmos, zinnias, and celosia, although shorter annuals, like marigolds and ageratum, make nice compact bouquets, too. You can mix cutting flowers in with perennial plantings, or include them in your vegetable garden.

• If you’ve been feeding the birds all winter, don’t stop now — although it’s starting to warm up, their natural food supplies are very low in late winter.

Stephanie Bruner is a freelance writer from Des Moines who has a degree in horticulture.